Accel World: Tales of Vengeance
by Ragner
Summary: A fic that starts from elementary school, OC Ryusuke Isha is thrown into the fray of a vicious battle between Nega Nebulas and the Kings of Pure Colour for Level 10. Catches up to the main storyline but has add on mini stories in between time skips. Follows canon. Enjoy!
1. Flames of War: Calm Before the Storm

Prologue – Flames of War: Calm before the Storm

Author's Note: As you all know, my usual fanfiction writing style is to start with a short prologue before an actual fanfic, by throwing the prologue out there, I can gauge the popularity and interest in the particular piece I'm doing, and make an educated guess into whether the fic is worth continuing. Usually my prologues are short, they are crappy, and they usually turn off readers and this one probably isn't any different. For those who don't judge stories by their prologues, I'm sure you'll enjoy the story... I hope... Without further ado...!

For the longest time in my life, I was alone... Misunderstood... Shunned by the very classmates I tried to get along with, living a cursed existence with nothing worth living for.

As an elementary school student, life was harsh for orphans, harsher for those who didn't fit in. Despite not being the class nuisance, it seemed just being alone was cause for endless bouts of bullying and teasing.

I hate it. Why can't it just end?

While there, one of the class monitors asked me to direct link with her at lunch. Figuring I had nothing to lose, I followed her. What happened next could be described as the best thing that happened to me... And the worst.

While hiding out in the library, she pulled out a direct link cable and asked me to plug it in, I did so of course, but not after quite a bit of persuasion on her end and hesitation on mine.

"I'm here to offer you an opportunity to leave this world behind. Would you follow me?" she said, sending me a suspicious program.

Thinking she was just sending me some kind of friendship application, I absentmindedly clicked "accept", my surroundings engulfed in a river of fire. The icon burning right in front of my eyes, I took a few scared glances at my surroundings burning brightly around me though I felt no heat.

As soon as the program installed, a phrase scrolled across my eyes, although my English wasn't that great, I got the general idea of what it was saying, " Welcome to the Accelerated World."

Bidding me farewell for the day, I was warned not to go onto the global network until I met her again the next day. No problems on that end, I never found the global net very appealing unless I wanted something.

Back to the orphanage it is then.

That night, I had the strangest dream, no, not a dream, a nightmare.

My father was a blacksmith, one of the last. He made novelty swords for shops and people who wanted to hang a real blade over their mantlepiece. He made them all, Iaito, Katana, Nodachi, Shinken... His works were all over his workshop and it was on one dark night, it happened.

Some burglars broke in, thinking of stealing the wares he kept in his workshop, my father liked to work late at night, and tried to fight them off. He was silenced that night, along with my mother and sister.

All of a sudden, the dream changed, with me standing in the middle of the workshop, crying over my father, begging him to wake up, clutching on to his favourite work.

The dream warped again, this time my family gone, but the blades all remained, stabbed into the ground like a tombstones in a graveyard, the workshop returned almost to its normal state.

Enough... Stop making me remember it...

With a scream, I fell to the ground clutching my head, cutting my arm on one of the blades, my blood flowing into the center of the room, and with a flash of bright light, the workshop vanished, only to be replaced by a desolate landscape, devoid of life, hope or reason.

Please... Let me wake up from this nightmare...! Somebody!

And with a start, I awoke, sweating and panting heavily.

Returning to school an hour earlier than normal, I was surprised to find my classmate there, leaning against the fence near the school gate.

"Judging by the look on your face, I'd say your ready."

And that is where my hell truly began.


	2. Violent Knight: Violet Night

Chapter 1 Violent Knight: Violet Night

"I take it you had a weird dream last night?" she asked, looking at the bags under my eyes.

"You... You didn't send me some kind of application that gives nightmares to its user every night did you...? Because I'll..."

"Relax, that's the one and only nightmare you'll have from the program, I'll explain more once we hit the break after first period." she said, heading into school.

Following her in, I struggled to call her, not knowing her name, "Uhhh, but first period break is fifteen minutes...!"

Turning around and giving me a wink, she said, "That'll be more than enough, stop worrying so much Ryusuke-san."

Oh damn, she knows my name but I don't know hers!

"Uhh... Sorry but... What's your name again?"

I'm never gonna live this down...

"Huh? You don't remember my name? Geez you should get more involved with your class you loner! I'm Hanako Asawa, you can call me Hanako-chan!"

The first period of the day flew by as I paid little attention to it, my mind primarily focused on what Hanako was going to teach me after class.

The bell ringing after what could easily be an eternity later, Hanako poked me in the ribs shocking me out of the wild fantasy that I was having.

"Ready to begin?" Hanako asked, moving her chair from the table across me to my side.

"I guess, what are we doing?" I replied, suddenly feeling awkward as her ruby eyes met mine, causing me to look away.

Holding out a direct connection cable, I stared at it stunned for a few seconds, "Isn't this... A... We... This..."

"Stop worrying and put it on!" Hanako said, plugging the cable into my neuro linker and hers.

The warning that our neuro linkers were connected blinked on my screen my screen for a few seconds before I heard Hanako's voice directly inside my head, "Well Ryusuke-kun, in order to activate the program I sent you yesterday, you need to verbally say the command 'burst link'. I'll send you a file containing the rest of the commands later but for now, let's just start with this. You ready?"

"Burst link." we both said simultaneously, the room colour being replaced by a brilliant cyan.

My avatar that I use for the school network popping out of my body, I checked my avatar to make sure nothing was wrong. Choker on neck, White shirt with black diagonal "V" striped, black jeans and shoes. And a optional programmed crutch to complete the 'cosplay'.

Emerging from her body as well, unlike me, Hanako hadn't opted to change much of her physical appearance, her dark brown hair still at shoulder length though her outfit was styled like a mage in an RPG. Long robes, runes drawn into the stitching, and even a staff to top it all off.

"You're really into anime huh." Hanako said, pointing her staff at my outfit, "I recognise that from something I saw from really long ago I think..."

"Yeah it is. So... What is this?" I asked, indicating the area around us with a sweep of my hand.

"This, is the Accelerated World, a world only known to us, the 'Burst Linkers'. In this world, time is sped up to 1000 times the usual speed, made possible by the cameras and your neuro linker."

Staring at Hanako as she spouted a whole load of gibberish, "I don't get it." I said flatly.

Sighing at my response, Hanako started to talk more slowly, "You see this room around us? This is the same room except what takes a second for everyone else, feels like 17 minutes approximately."

"I get that part."

"Alright, Acceleration is made possible by over clocking the heart to accelerate brain function..."

"You lost me again. You can just skip the complicated bits, I'll read it up at home."

"Are you sure you don't understand it or are you just saying it to get me to the interesting parts?"

"The interesting parts." I said, grinning at the fact I've been found out.

"Urgh, I'll send you an email on your so called 'boring parts'. Look at your neuro linker menu then. The icon you first saw when you received the application should be there."

Pressing the icon she was talking about, an old rusted metal task bar with a chains motif on the side popped out with a list of options, "Alright it's out, what now?"

"Select matching and challenge Rust Bomber."

Pressing the matching button, a list appeared with only two names on it. Ignoring the other name for now, I quickly pressed Rust Bomber and the duel button when it dropped down.

"Who's Rust Bomber?" I asked, the room dissolving and reforming into a post apocalyptic version of the room we were in.

"Me of course." Hanako replied, her robes disappearing and reforming as two circled of light appeared at her midriff, altering her robes into a smooth curved light armour with a deep red metallic hue, two patches of slightly lighter colour on her chest, the rest of her armour emerging as the circles disappeared over her head and below her feet. The result was spectacular, some guys found her attractive outside, but in here, she still manages to look pretty despite being covered by metal.

"Stop gawking it isn't THAT nice, you don't look too bad yourself."

Looking at a reflection of myself in the shards of glass on the floor, I nearly fell over in shock. My avatar had been totally remodelled to a figure with dark purple chest armour and what looked like form fitting thin plating on the legs. A cloak with a more byzantine hue spread halfway over my chest plate and down my back was fastened at the waist and continued down to my ankles.

Wait... The bottom half looks like a...

"Nice skirt." Hanako said, slinging what could only be a rocket launcher over her back and pointing at the lower half of my cloak while succumbing to a fit of giggles.

"I don't want to hear that from a gun toting flatty." I muttered, accidentally letting slip the most taboo word that should never be said around Hanako.

The next thing I knew, a heavy metal tube made contact with my head bringing me down on one knee, "Say that again!"

"Sorry sorry!... Aren't you supposed to be teaching me?"

Dropping the matter after a long glare, Hanako slung the rocket launcher over her shoulder and pointed upwards, "Look at the top of your vision, what do you see?"

"Uhhh, a fighting game heads up display?"

"Precisely. My bar is Rust Bomber, the blue bar represents my health, and the green my special gauge. You've played fighting games before right? So I don't need to go into detail on how the special gauge works."

"So I'm... Violet Night...?"

Now that I think about it, that seems pretty obvious seeing that all my armour all the way down to my gauntleted hands are purple.

I think that dumb question is going to earn me another smack across the... Ow! Never mind...

"It seems you carry three swords." Hanako said, pointing out the scabbards on my back and the one at my right side, "But we'll get to those later. Explaining the details about avatars takes precedence."

Pressing a few buttons on her end, Hanako brought up a circular colour chart with several names and words on it.

"All of our armour is colour coded. The colour of our armour and its saturation or purity indicates our attacking style. The three pure colours red, yellow, and blue each represent a type of combat that we are more specialised for. Red specialises in long range combat, guns, cannons, these are the type of thing you'll see most red types carrying. Yellow specialise in indirect attacks, jamming, disruption tactics are their specialty. I myself am rust coloured, red infused with a small amount of yellow. Blue specialises in close range combat, swords like yours and other melee fighters belong in this area..."

"If that's the case, Why am I not blue?" I asked.

I'd rather be coloured blue than be purple... This colour looks weird.

"I'm coming to that. You see the areas between the primary colours? There's green, and purple right? These colours are a mixture and exhibit both traits of the primary colours. Greens are capable of indirect and close range attacks, when indirect and close range come together, they usually have incredible defence. Orange is a mixture of long range and indirect. I am not pure orange but I do use long range and disruption tactics hence my colour. Purple is a mixture of close range and long range, meaning you can use both. Though, violet itself has a higher concentration of blue than red but its saturation and hue make it a nearly pure purple. Judging by colour alone you'd be capable of both long and short range but better at short."

"Then what were those notes you added and blanked out before you started talking about colours?"

"Oh those. Those are notes on people I've met and where they fit on the scale. That and the positions of the 7 kings of pure colour."

"Kings of pure colour...?"

"Yes, the strongest level 9's with the highest colour purity all have their own legions. They are, Cryptic Cosmic Circus led by Yellow Radio, Auroral Oval led by Purple Thorn, Oscillatory Universe's king is unknown as there's always a messenger instead, Prominence was led by Red Rider but was disbanded shortly after he was killed by the Black King, Black Lotus. She's the biggest traitor in the whole of the Accelerated World. Her legion also disappeared shortly after her betrayal. Leoniz led by the Blue King, and Great Wall led by the Green King. Each king has rule over a domain but I'll explain those details some other time. Right now we need to teach you how to fight in under... Twenty minutes." Hanako said, looking at the timer above our heads.

"If you say so." I said, taking a few seconds to reach behind my back and locate the hilts of the swords on my back before drawing them.

"Too slow. Put them back and draw... Wait a minute, do that again."

"Do what? Put them away and draw them again?"

"No no, just drop those two and draw from behind you."

"How the hell does that work...? Eh...?"

Dropping the two swords in my hand, when I reached behind me to what I expected was an empty scabbard, another two swords completely different from the first two came out.

"I see... So that's how it is... Ryusuke, take off one of your scabbards."

Doing as I was told, I held the scabbard in my hand, a sword hilt at the tip even though I had drawn two swords from the same scabbard.

"Draw another." Hanako said, staring at the scabbard quite intently.

Placing my left hand on the hilt and giving it a firm tug, the hilt initially had no blade and the blade only took form after the hilt had left the scabbard, another hilt phasing into existence on the scabbard.

"Look! There's a small gauge here! It must be counting how many more swords it can produce!" Hanako said, pointing at a small gauge on the scabbard's side.

That doesn't explain how I'm a multiple range fighter though..." I said, the abandoned swords forming a pile on the floor.

"Press your name below the special gauge and check your skill list, it might be listed there." Hanako said, still eagerly studying the scabbard.

"I've got... Beam Rifle... Detonate... and a Killer Move called... Blade Fury: Arch Combine."

It'll increase in time... Right now, we'll work on what you have. If you train hard enough, I'll give you a little reward. Sound fair?"

"Let's go!" I yelled, picking up one of the discarded swords on the floor and twirling it to test its weight.

"My tactics involve the use of rockets and other explosives. However, I am also skilled in the use of pyrotechnics. For now we'll just train you in dodging and attacking." Hanako said, loading her rocket launcher.

"Wait! If you fire that thing at me and I get hit..."

"Then don't get hit!" Hanako yelled, firing a rocket right at me.

Screaming and throwing myself out of the way of the rocket's path, I was a sitting duck for the next shot which took off a large chunk of my health bar.

"Expect the unexpected. I bet you were thinking: 'Rocket Launchers only fire a single shot so I should be fine if I get out of the way.' right? Here's a hint, my launcher has been upgraded to fire three separate normal shots before reloading. Keep that in mind."

By the end of the half hour time period, I had learned decent dodging skills against projectiles and how to use my beam rifle in several methods other than attack.

Who knew lasers could be used to dissect rockets or shoot them down? Too bad my reaction time against these things aren't fast enough for it to be a viable defence.

"Well, as I promised, here's your reward." Hanako said, initiating a transfer.

"What's this?" I asked, looking at the transfer window.

"I'm giving you a small something to help you o your way, it's called an enhanced armament. I'll teach you how to use it later, now accept it!"

Receiving the equipment Hanako was trying to send me without much issue, I silently stared at it for a few seconds, "What is this?"

"Automated Enhanced Guided Intervention System." Hanako said proudly.

"Sounds like a mouthful."

"Wait, there's more."

"That's not the full name?"

"No! I mean wait til you hear what it can do!"

Man, if the thing had a name that was any longer, talking about it would be a giant pain in the ass.

"Open it up and I'll explain."

"How do I open... Oh..."

As soon as I had said the word 'open' the 'thing' opened up in the middle revealing a pair of rockets inside.

"This enhanced armament is used to deploy any item you want in a combat situation. For me, the only thing can think of are rockets since that is all I have. And it only fires six shots before requiring a reload so it isn't exactly ideal for me. Try slotting your scabbards in! Go on!"

As soon as she removed her two rockets, I placed the scabbards on the space left by the rockets and stared at it for a few seconds.

"Uhhh, nothing's happening."

"Shhh! Wait!"

Sliding to accommodate the two new additions, the scabbards were sucked into the machine and connected, a number "194" appearing at the top of my view below my special gauge.

"It looks like it's connected! We'll continue this after lunch, our time is nearly up." Hanako said, moving her hand in midair sending a draw request to me.

"Accept it, we'll talk later."

Pressing 'accept', Hanako and I were sent back to the real world with a start, Hanako still sitting on my right.

"Ehh? Those two are cabling? You don't mean..."

Quickly yanking the cable out of my neuro linker, Hanako blushed furiously before rounding on the girl that insinuated that we were together, "It's not what you think! I was just asking him to check my neuro linker!"

"He checked it in two seconds? That's fast. What was he supposed to check?" another girl asked.

Oh boy, we're never going to live this down.

"It's not what you think!" Hanako yelled, fleeing from the class.

Hanako didn't return until the rumours had died down after the second lesson and had returned to her normal self by lunch time.

"Shall we find somewhere more private... This time?" I asked tentatively, unsure of how Hanako would react.

Nodding as she slurped away at her soumen, Hanako swallowed and tapped her neuro linker sending a silent message to my mailbox.

"We'll go to the library. Thirty minutes should be more than enough to get the hang of using it right?"

A few minutes later, after both our meals were finished, Hanako and I made our way up to the library where she pulled out her cable again.

"Ready?"

"Yeah."

Plugging her cable into her neuro linker and mine, we both gave each other a brief nod before accelerating.

The buildings disappearing and being replaced by a large field of grass with a beautiful sunset as the backdrop, Hanako admired the scenery for a while before turnover back to me, "The twilight stage, it's pretty rare so enjoy it while you can."

"Right..." I replied, taking a quick look around, "Wait, where's the automated whatever thing and my other two scabbards?"

"Oh! You have to bring them out from your storage. Command is: Come, Enhanced Armament. And you can just call it A.E.G.I.S by the way."

"Come, Enhanced Armament!"

With a small mote of light, the AEGIS appeared from behind me, and attached itself to my back with a small click.

Studying the new readout after summoning the AEGIS, I was at a slight loss on what to do, "Now what?"

"Deploy it. Just disengage it and throw it into the air, it will do the rest."

That sounds convenient.

With a pneumatic hiss, the AEGIS came off quite easily and the only thing left to do was throw it into the air.

To be honest, the last bit was done a little sloppily... But it still went up all the same.

"Now that it's up there, check your skill list again. You should have a few more options."

"You're right! There's Deploy and I have a new Killer Move called Blade Storm: Desolate End!"

"I'm guessing 'Deploy' means deploying a sword from the AEGIS. Try it out."

Selecting the skill with a press of my finger, another box opened up.

"It's asking for coordinates."

"There should be two options, one requires manual entry, the other just obtains the coordinates from the spot that you're looking at. Use the second."

This is so complicated...

While I selected the second option, a red cross appeared on the ground in front of Hanako moving wherever I looked.

Cool...

Pointing my eyes at the spot just in front of Hanako at that point in time, I blinked accidentally causing the red cross to turn green, a sword shooting into the ground just in front of Hanako less than a second later.

"Nice!" Hanako said, reaching for and picking up the sword that had just been shot in front of her.

If I tell her that's an accident she would kill me for sure.

As soon as Hanako picked up the sword, a red warning window appeared at the top left of my view, under the remaining sword counter with a warning written on it, "Unauthorised use of weapon detected. Detonate?"

I better ignore the sign. If I acknowledge it, it might really detonate the sword... The sword... In Hanako's hand...

Holy shit!

At that point, the warning sign turned into a timer, counting down from 5 seconds.

That's not enough time!

"Hanako! Throw the sword away it's gonna blow!"

A sudden jerk ran through Hanako's body as she immediately threw the sword away like a javelin, the sword blowing up harmlessly in midair.

"Oook, I know you don't like it when I touch your stuff but that's taking it too far you know." Hanako said, letting out a low whistle.

"I didn't do that on purpose! I swear!" I yelled, holding my hands up.

"I know you didn't. At least I didn't lose an arm from that little adventure though... Just what on earth did you go through to get an avatar with exploding swords I wonder..."

"Well, in any case I think you've learned how to use the enhanced armament well enough, now all that's left is to charge your special gauge and try out your new Killer Move." Hanako said, clapping her hands together causing a metallic sound to echo over the field.

"So does that mean I have to hit you and you have to hit me...?" I asked, slightly afraid of striking Hanako for fear of retribution.

"There's no need, you can destroy the... Stage... Hmmm..." Hanako said, starting to look around at the endless grassy plains.

And what am I supposed to destroy exactly? There's nothing but grass here.

"Oh... I guess we'll have to hit each other then..." Hanako said, suddenly shooting a rocket at my chest.

Sent flying by the impact and resulting explosion, I slowly got to my feet, having taken slightly less than half my total health gauge in a single attack.

"She's ruthless..." I muttered, struggling to get back on my feet and countering with a beam rifle to her torso.

Although the beam didn't do much damage to Hanako, that small attack gave me the last push to max out my special gauge.

"Here goes! Blade Storm: Desolate End!" I yelled, nothing happening on the first few seconds.

"Eh?" I muttered, another window selection appearing on my screen, "Target" or "Spread"

Pressing "Target", sword after sword started shooting downwards like a torrential hail, all of the swords aiming at Hanako.

"Hey! Wait a second! Not fair!" Hanako yelled, dodging left and right, firing a cluster rocket every few seconds at another wave of incoming swords.

Laughing and watching the show, another blast in my face promptly shut me up as Hanako blew another rocket right at my head, "Stop laughing you idiot... Ahhh!"

Her concentration diverted to me instead of the incoming onslaught, Hanako got stabbed by the few remaining swords before my sword stock counter reached zero.

"I guess... We'll call it a draw again..." Hanako said softly, staggering around looking like a porcupine.

"Totally..." I replied, half my chest plate gone and my health in critical condition.

Both of us opting to draw again, we were returned back to the library, less than a second after we had cabled and accelerated.

"Man, doesn't this mean people with Brain Burst can still be challenged to matches while in class and still not miss a thing?" I asked, as Hanako put away her cable.

"Pretty much, but I'm surprised you haven't thought about the other uses of Brain Burst."

"Like what?"

"Think. In what kind of situations would you like to have a potentially infinite amount of time?"

"Uhhh, answering a difficult question from a teacher?"

"Close, but too mundane. Think outside of school."

"Getting out of a life threatening situation?"

"You're either pulling my leg, really naive, or possess no wish for self gain whatsoever."

"How is saving my life not under self gain?"

"If go accelerated during tests, during sports tournaments, gambling, all these would give you results, money, prestige. Don't you want that?"

"The thought has crossed my mind... But no. What's the point in receiving something you didn't achieve? There's no point. That and I in my current situation have no use for money, prestige or good results anyway."

"I see... May I ask why...?"

"Money, results, and prestige can't bring back the dead." I said sullenly, standing up to leave.

"I'm sorry, I asked something shouldn't have..." Hanako said softy, looking towards her feet.

"You would've found out sooner or later." I said, starting to walk away.

"I see... Well, I'm glad I made the right choice."

"In what?" I replied, turning around.

"The licensing on the Brain Burst program, limits the transfer of the file to one person, regardless of success or failure. I have heard hints of your past, but I was unsure whether you would want this."

"Well I'm thankful you chose me, but even if you gave me this program, why did you give up your enhanced armament to me? Couldn't you sell it or something?"

"The enhanced armament isn't much, I got it quite easily and was thinking of selling it until you came along." Hanako said, walking slightly closer to me.

"Then why didn't you?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Hanako said, practically closing the distance between us while flashing a smile that could warm the coldest heart, "It's because I'm your 'parent', and you are my 'child'."

-End of Chapter 1-

And finally the first chapter's out! Read, review, routine stuff and look forward to the next chapter!


	3. That Which He Lacks: Combat Experience

Chapter 2 That Which He Lacks: Combat Experience

"Parent...?" I whispered, Hanako nearly in my face now.

"Yes, by giving you the program I am called your 'parent'. Only in Brain Burst of course."

"I see..."

"Do you... Dislike me...?" Hanako whispered, taking a small step back.

Her eyes... They looked like mine once before... Scared of being rejected, of being alone. I've almost forgotten what it's like...

"No, just surprised that's all, I thought you were calling yourself my real life parent for a second there..."

"T-that's not what I meant and you know it!" Hanako said, flustered and going red in the face.

"If you say so... Mother..." I said, laughing as Hanako's face grew even redder.

"Ryusuke-kun you Baka!" Hanako yelled, pushing me playfully as she stormed off.

Well, I suppose that's what I get for teasing her...

With a few more classes coming and going until the end of school, Hanako finally agreed to accompany me out of school and only after I begged.

Walking along the pavement that led to both her house and the orphanage I stayed at, my movements suddenly froze as the world turned blue, breaking and reforming itself as well.

"I... Accelerated...?"

No, not me, I was forced to Accelerate, that could only mean... I forgot to disconnect to the global network and was now about to fight a mysterious opponent.

-Here comes a new challenger!-

The customary timer dropped to the top of my view, the timer itself counting down from 1800 seconds as two gauges slammed into the timer before latching on by a chain, bot bars filling to the max with a blue crystalline substance.

My name's on the left... Violet Night... But my opponent is...?

Mint Duster...?

-FIGHT!-

Looking up at the guide cursor, it pointed through several buildings to what I think is the nearby elementary school about few hundred meters in the direction of the guide cursor's arrow.

Well, that means I've got time to get ready.

"Come, Enhanced Armament!" I yelled, bringing out the backpack sized satellite before throwing it into the air watching it unfold and deploy.

This is the world end stage... If I'm not wrong, all the buildings are in the same place as reality, taking into account the distance and if he/she takes the most direct path they should be... Right in front of me.

As if on cue, a loud crash sounded from the building wall in front of me, a dark green duel avatar poking his head out before giving a jovial wave.

"Hey! It's a fellow level 1! Nice to meet ya!" Mint said, slinging his small buckler over his back before extending a hand out.

"Likewise...?" I muttered uncertainly, offering a hand out as well only to watch it fall off in a flash.

"Agh?! Ah?!" I grunted, the pain assaulting my senses like an army of fire ants.

I knew pain was real in these battles, but nothing like this...!

"Lesson number one new guy, make sure the guy takes off his offensive weapon before shaking his hand." Mint sneered, stabbing his rapier forwards at my unguarded chest.

Reaching my left hand out I gave it a quick glance to call down a sword from the satellite at the coordinates my hand represented.

While I was busy looking at my hand for that split second, Mint had thrusted his shield forwards and upwards smashing into my face, knocking me back a few steps, my health bar already dropping to half.

"Lesson number two, always keep your eyes on your opponent."

The sword I summoned harmlessly stabbing into the ground between us, Mint hopped back out of the way by reflex or by shock, "Whoa now, nice move."

He must think I did that intentionally.

Looking straight at him to lock another set of coordinates in, he lunged forward again suddenly, forcing me to dodge or be sliced in two, the coordinates I was trying to lock in ending up five meters away from the intended target.

These things keep popping out of the sky, are they yours?" Mint said, reaching for one of them.

Now's my chance!

As soon as he touched the hilt, a warning flashed on the top left of my vision, this time I quickly selected "Yes". The effect was instantaneous, the sword blew up in his hand taking off a few fingers, the rest of the blast blocked and deflected by his shield.

That brought him down quite a bit, but he still has quite a lot of health compared to mine.

"Nasty little... That's foul play!"

Mother ever teach you not to touch what isn't yours? Ha ha ha ha.

Stamping the ground in an attempt to scare me, I fell for his little trick, tumbling to the right out of the way of an attack that never came.

Shit, what am I supposed to do now?! What angle, what attack?!

"You're wide open!" Mint yelled, raising his rapier and swinging down on my unguarded head.

"So are you!" I retorted, raising my sword above my head to guard, our blades striking each other and sending sparks flying as metal met metal.

Looking straight at his face and locking the coordinates in while we parried and slid around, a small glint in the sky indicating that my salvation had come.

Just before the blade I had called down was about to hit its mark, Mint raised his shield, probably to slam it down on my head, instead deflecting the sword meant for him.

"Huh? You sneaky little bugger!" Mint yelled, leaping backwards and raising his own rapier above his head, the green bar below his health draining rapidly.

He's going to use his special attack!

"Dust explosion!" he yelled, slamming his rapier into the ground, a large cloud of dust rising into the air, shaken and brought up by Mint's ground slam.

Dammit, I can't see... He probably can if he used this special move, but for now, I'm totally blind.

Raising my left hand in a guarding stance in case he attacked, (opponent blinded, upper hand in the pocket, who wouldn't take the advantage?), the notification warning of unauthorised usage of one of the blades flashed on the upper left hand corner of my vision.

Oh please, don't tell me he's that stupid?

"Goodbye buster." I said, selecting yes as I parried a hit from Mint.

That sword... Isn't it one of mine?! Oh... SHIT!

The reason he jumped back... The dust explosion... The positioning of his jump... It all makes sense now. I never paid much attention to the sword that was shot in between us... And that... That one sword... I really screwed myself didn't I?

"I have more than half my health, you have less than a quarter. Goodbye to you. Buster." Mint said, the sword exploding in his hand, the blast deflected by his shield on his end, the shockwave and flames enveloping me on mine.

My health reaching zero, a summary tabbed dropped in front of me, my points dropping from 98 to 88.

Decelerating and stumbling as my foot was still in the air when I was challenged, Hanako tapping me on the back while nodding slowly.

The nodding's meaning was clear, "You did your best." but what if my best isn't enough? We learn to stand after we crawl, we learn to pick ourselves up after we fall.

But that isn't a lesson learned by everyone. Some people don't get up, some don't want to. But... If I don't want to join the ranks of the likes of these people... How...?

Huh? Acceleration?

This is dumb, how many times am I going to be... Eh?

"My oh my, looks like it's my turn." Hanako said, transforming next to me and disappearing onto the field.

Hanako? Someone actually challenged Hanako? This is gonna be a treat, my settings cause me to auto-accelerate when a match occurs in the area I'm in on the global net. But seriously... Who'd be stupid enough to challenge...

Looking up at the names under the health bars Rust Bomber's name was shown on the left and the right was... Mint Duster.

What. The. Hell.

"E-eh?! I was trying to challenge some other guy, why did you pop up?!" Mint said, his tone quivering.

"Were you trying to challenge Violet Night again by any chance?" Hanako said sweetly, her syrupy voice masking the underlying deathly seriousness behind her question.

"Yeah... I..."

"Matches are limited to one a day between the same challengers. Looks like I will be your opponent." Hanako said, unslinging her weapon.

"H-hey... Maybe we can like... Talk this over?" Mint said, raising his hands up in an attempt to calm Hanako down.

She's pissed. I haven't ever seen her this angry since... Alright I've never seen her this angry.

"Are you calling a truce?" Hanako said, taking one hand off her launcher and holding it out to Mint.

A truce? That doesn't sound like the Hanako I know...

"Thanks... I don't think I'll stand a chance against you anyway... Oooof?!"

Before Mint could take the offered hand and shake it, Hanako had levelled her launcher's barrel in Mint's face and sent him flying backwards with an air blast.

"Lesson number one, don't take advantage of your opponent's naivety and sportsmanship." Hanako said coldly, loading an actual rocket into the launcher.

"You... Were watching...?" Mint said softly, getting up and gripping his chest.

"Obviously. Taking advantage of a new opponent is generally frowned upon in this world." Hanako said.

She nearly admitted to being my 'Parent' I think.

"Picking on a Level 1... Aren't you just being a bully?!" Mint yelled, a few of the onlookers muttering among themselves after that statement.

"You challenged me. Not the other way around. And not only did you admit to challenging me, you stated that your original intentions was to kick an already beaten opponent. Tell me, are my actions justified?"

"No... They're not!" Mint yelled, leaping forward like a sprinter from the starting block, rapier raised while he screamed a battle cry.

Without a pause, or even a shifting her stance, Hanako calmly shot a rocket at Mint, the rocket flying straight and true at Mint's chest for maximum impact.

Although the rocket path was already determined the moment it exited the barrel, the causal effect of whether Mint would block, deflect, or dodge was still left to fate until the very last second where he picked option C and deftly sidestepped the explosive that went screaming past his side. Raising his sword with renewed vigour, Mint swung his rapier down, the sound of metal flying through air being met with the dull clang of the rapier clashing with Hanako's launcher, who opted to use it as a makeshift shield.

The two discolourations on Hanako which were most likely her eyes casting a look at the point where the launcher and rapier fought for supremacy, screeching as the rapier slid back and forth, sparks scattering from the friction. Nodding as if satisfied, Hanako looked into Mint's eyes for a split second before slamming her forehead into Mint's face, breaking the parry and causing Mint to stagger backwards.

"Ow..!" Mint cried, raising his shield hand to check the damage made to his face, despite the fact that his health bar barely budged.

Either he has inhuman defence or Hanako is going easy on him, his health is still above the 80% mark.

"How can you...?!" Mint started to say, instantly silenced by Hanako as she slung her launcher in one smooth sweeping motion, catching Mint unawares with a strike against the face.

With the advantage in her court, Hanako started out with a sliding thrust kick using the slide to cover the distance created between them to put her foot through Mint's abdomen. Giving him no rest, nor any reprieve, Hanako shot forwards yet again, punching him twice, once in his unguarded flank, the other into his solar plexus before jumping backwards to put some distance between them.

"How... How is this possible?! You're nearly pure red! You should specialise in long range attacks! Why is it... Uwwaggh?!"

Rocket launcher unslung from her back in less than a second, Hanako or another round in the wall behind Mint, barely missing his face for emphasis, "Indeed you are correct that the red legion specialises in long range attacks. But that doesn't mean all of us take kindly to having our biggest weakness rubbed in our faces.

"Close range combat..." I muttered as it dawned on me.

Of course! While the red legion would have a distinct advantage over someone from the blue legion over a great distance, as soon as they close that distance, the red legion faces a great disadvantage if they can't fight in close quarters, especially in Hanako's case as she uses explosives. So in order to compensate for that weakness of hers, she must have learned how to fight in close combat. But that didn't do anything in the long run, that barrage of attacks only put a small dent in Mint's remaining health.

"Good thing I won the round before this, I'll have more than enough points to buffer a loss from you." Mint said, glaring at Hanako as he stood up again.

That son of a bitch is asking for it, taunting her like that. It's almost like he has a death... Wait...

Before I could shout a warning to Hanako, Mint had raised his rapier, his special gauge going from full to about a quarter remaining.

Not again!

"Dust explosion!" Mint yelled, slamming his rapier into the ground, a large dust cloud bursting from the point of impact.

Less than a second later, another explosion occurred within the dust cloud, Mint taking more damage as a figure shot out from the top of the cloud.

It was Hanako! Propelling herself into the air somehow, Hanako twirled in midair throwing a few small objects into the dust with a flick of her hand, bright flashes of light shining, obscured by the particles, Mint's health dropping even further.

Slinging back her rocket launcher, gravity started to slow Hanako's upward momentum and pull her back down to the ground as she disappeared into the smoky debris once more.

What happened next was anybody's guess as both bars took a hit both losing a sixth of the whole bar before Mint's remaining health, a good one third of the original, dropped to zero in an instant.

Walking out as calm as ever, Hanako gave me a small wave as the dust cleared, revealing Mint lying on the ground, his own rapier stabbed cleanly within his chest.

With a quick exchange of nods, Hanako and I burst out and returned to the normal world, Hanako smirking from her most recent match.

"Thanks a bunch, I learned a lot from watching you. And thanks for dealing with... Him..."

"He was asking for it! I didn't do it for you! Baka..." Hanako muttered, going a little red in the face.

Well, it's going to be an uphill battle from here on out, getting combat experience (and lots of it) is definitely a must.

"So... Any plans for tomorrow?" I asked, looking away as I did so.

"No... Why do you ask?"

"Would you be able to teach me how to battle again?"

"I think I have a better idea..." Hanako muttered, a thoughtful look crossing her face.

"What is it?"

"If you don't mind cabling with me again... We could go for tag battles..." Hanako said, blushing and looking away.

"That'd be nice. See you tomorrow after school then?"

"Y-yeah..." Hanako stammered, going even more red in the face.

Hanako should really see a doctor, she looks kinda feverish... Or maybe that's just me...

-End of Chapter 2-

Well, it's a tad short, but drawing out the battle scenes at this stage would be counter productive because the time will drag, I won't add that much to it... So yeah. Anyway, at this stage, battles are mostly hit and miss since both parties usually lack any real skill or stalling tactics. All in all, I had this battle scenes in my mind for quite a while, really glad to finally get them out there. Cheers til next time!


	4. Ruled By Rage: Motivated By Will

Chapter 3 Ruled by Rage: Motivated by Will

Barely able to keep my excitement during the day, I nearly jumped Hanako as we cleared the gate, the glare she gave me just before I did being all that stopped me from doing so.

"Calm down, if we're going to do this, we have to find a safe place to dive."

"Dive?" I asked, not sure what she meant.

"Accelerate. We're going to the nearby library. From there we can link as tag partners and challenge other people." Hanako said, her hand rotating as she performed a few actions on her neuro linker, "There, the nearest library is a few blocks from here, we'll head there first."

The walk to the library despite being only a few blocks took ages to get there, but it made the walk there infinitely more enjoyable. The streets seemed to be painted in a more colourful gradient than usual, the smells from various food shops and restaurant tickling my nose with their sinful aromas.

Finding a corner at the back of the library, Hanako and I sat down as she pulled out a link cable offering one end to me.

If I was told by anyone that I'd be cabling with a girl so often I would have told then to throw out the weed they were smoking. But now, I feel as if this was totally natural. I had changed, Brain Burst had changed me. I can only hope that all the changes remain positive from here on out.

"[Alright, the drill is simple, we register ourselves as tag partners now. After that we fight opponents with the same level total as us so that you gain a good amount of points without having too much difficulty winning. This is to teach you not only how to fight in general but how to fight as a team.]" Hanako said with her mind made possible by the direct link.

"[Alright.]" I replied, my hand typing in midair as Hanako sent me the invite which I accepted.

"[From here on out, this is were it gets tougher.]" Hanako said as we both prepared to connect to the global network.

"[Why?]" I asked, pausing from the worry in her tone.

"[Be prepared to accelerate just after we connect and I'll tell you why when we do.]"

Watching the customised animation window on my neuro linker: a sword being pulled out of its sheath as the progress bar filled to full signalling my registration to the global network being completed.

"Burst Link."

The world turning a bright blue as we both accelerated, both our avatars materialised from our bodies. Hanako's Mage outfit still quite the eye catcher, she quickly blushed and opened up the matching list scrolling down the list towards the mid level opponents.

"I hope you know what you're doing..." I muttered, eyeing the list as the levels got higher and the names got even more bizarre from innocuous names like "Powder Bear" to vicious names like "Blood Butcher".

"Ah, here's a good match, "Lead Scimitar" and "Lilac Lily". They're both Level 3 so we should earn a decent amount of points if we win." Hanako said, about to select then as opponents.

"Just so you know, I'm a Level 1, I'm in no condition to fight people higher levelled and more experienced than me..."

"I know that... That's why I'm here silly!"

With those words of encouragement, Hanako pressed on the matching list selecting the opponents and pressing the drop button "Duel" sending us straight into battle.

As I appeared next to Hanako, two circles of light started out from my midsection and expanded in opposite directions, my local net avatar fading out as the clothes my network avatar wore was replaced by the angular violet armour bit by bit, my helmet appearing last. Landing next to Hanako who was already in her rust armour, she pointed a slender finger out towards the stage, the blue stage morphing before our eyes.

Walls partially crumbled revealing gears underneath them, glass cracked and shattered as the window frames thickened, some of the glass falling to the floor, the rest disappearing into the vestiges of cyberspace. The bookshelves that lined the large room I was in fell over and broke into pieces, the broken pieces being deleted like the glass shards. Running to the window of the library we were in, the road outside crumbled and reformed to a smooth tiled surface not unlike the walls we were surrounded by. Large towers in the distance shattered and fell, revealing the gears and pipes in their inner workings, like a scene out of an old visual novel from decades ago that I had read recently.

"The factory stage huh...? This would put us on an even playing field..." Hanako wondered aloud, her rocket launcher out and already pointing in the direction of the doorway.

"Huh? Why?" I replied, currently under shelter and thus unable to deploy the satellite.

"Open the colour table under your status sheet and search up the colours Lilac and Lead."

The colour table out in a quick series of button presses followed by a wrist twirl, I quickly entered the two colours into the search bar, two points on the colour chart blinking simultaneously, "I got it, Lilac is a pale purple... Lead isn't even on the chart at all... Wait, there's a separate bar?"

"That's the metal chart." Hanako said, walking over and jabbing it towards the bar under the circular colour chart, "Originally I told you the characteristics of every colour but I left out the metal chart because I didn't think we'd run into a metal so soon. Metals are rare colours in the Accelerated World and have their own chart split from the regular chart and own specialties. Metals are special in that they do not have a fixed offensive potential, though most of their abilities are of a melee range nature, what makes them so special is their defence capability."

"Defence...?" I wondered aloud, following Hanako out the door, walking away from the guide cursor as she continued her explanation.

"Yes, split from precious metals on the left of the chart to heavy metals on the right, Lead itself is a particularly troublesome colour. It has immunity against many physical elements like striking and piercing and is weaker against special elements like poison and being burnt. This means that shooting it with explosive projectiles or using blunt force like causing him to take damage from the stage by falling would not be as effective."

"I see... And what about this factory stage?"

"Factory stage: Hard surface, Feedback damage upon stage destruction. Weak attacks won't work, and melee attacks will cause feedback damage to the attacker. But since lilac is purple the avatar can attack from a range, and lead would be immune to the feedback damage. Likewise both of us can attack at a range and thus can fill our own gauges via stage destruction with no drawback."

"Then... Does the factory stage have flowers?" I asked, my footsteps coming to a stop.

"Not at all. Why do you ask?"

"Petals..."

Indeed there were petals fluttering in through the windows, most of them glowing a serene violet colour as they floated and tumbled on the inwards draft.

"They've found us get down!" Hanako screamed, grabbing my shoulders and forcing me down as a purple blur flashed above us, large gashes appearing in the walls where both Hanako and I were less than a second before.

"Aww, I missed." a girl's voice came from outside, sounding around our age and playfully disappointed.

"Never mind. We'll take care of the Level 1 first, it'll teach that Level 5 to pick better partners." a boys voice said, a metallic clacking sound echoing through the corridors as our opponents closed in on us.

"Don't just lie there, run!" Hanako whispered urgently, dragging me to a room on the other side of the corridor after I deployed a sword from my satellite and stabbed it into the ground.

Her hand still on my shoulders, Hanako steered me o a nearby window and jumped out, signalling me to do the same as the male's voice said from the corridor, "What's this? A sword? Did one of those two idiots leave it behind...? Uwahhh?!"

As the sword was undeniably touched by one of them, I quickly sent the detonation command, causing a small dent in Lead Scimitar's health as the resulting explosion blasted the corridor the sword was in.

That should teach him a... Huh?

The dent I had made in Lead Scimitar's health gauge was practically negligible! One of my swords alone is enough to take out at least the hand that touched it and deal at least a tenth in terms of damage, the drop in Lead's health bar is less than half that!

"Striking immunity. The damage you dealt to him was most likely the flames from the explosion." Hanako said grimly, throwing a small canister on the ground, smoke flowing constantly out of it and fogging the area, "Here's the plan, you engage Lead Scimitar, I can't fight a well trained melee fighter, and your ability to fight in ranged combat is not as good as Lilac Lily."

Nodding in response, I broke off from Hanako, hoping that they would split as well and come fight us in one on one battles, deploying my satellite in preparation for battle.

Did I mention that things just never go as planned?

"Hey the Level 1 went this way. Let's gank him first. Once he dies the match is ours." Lead Scimitar said, a pair of footsteps heading for my position instead of heading towards Hanako.

This is so not fair... If I hide in a building, I'll be a sitting duck but if I stay outside they'll find me for sure...

Struggling to calculate the coordinates needed to deploy swords so that I could have a fighting chance, I tripped in my mad scramble to get away, catching the attention of my two opponents.

"So unsightly." Lead Scimitar laughed, brandishing a wicked blade that was the same dull grey as him.

"I wonder who his parent is?" Lilac Lilly wondered aloud, her petals already surrounding me.

P-please... Let this work...! If it doesn't I'm dead!

Entering the coordinates that I had gambled my life on, a sword shot down from the sky... And struck the ground more than ten meters away from my two opponents.

Laughing hard and making me feel even smaller than I already did, they both closed in on me Lilac's petals completely surrounding us now, "Any last words newbie? Your parent would be so disappointed in you."

"Actually, I admire him for standing his ground." a voice said from behind both of them.

Hanako...! Thank goodness!

"Geez, what happened to the honour of one on one?" Hanako sighed, loading a rocket and firing at Lead and Lilac's feet, forcing them to jump out of the way or be blown up.

"C'mon let's go, you take Lead and I take Lily." Hanako said, offering me a hand and hoisting me to my feet.

Nodding in response, I stood still for a moment to calculate the coordinates that I was on against the position I was on the map.

"C'mon, hurry up! What's taking you so long?" Hanako asked, getting impatient.

"Calculating..." I muttered, trying not to give in to the loss of concentration that occurred during the time it took to answer her.

"What? Calculate faster! Aren't you using yourself as the point of origin? It'll let you arm yourself a lot faster!"

Actually now that she mentions it she does make a very good point...

No sooner had I changed the system I was using, a sword came flying down, embedding itself in the ground right next to me, ripe for the picking as I drew it and swung it once to test its weight.

"Isn't that a lot easier? Let me guess, you were using the map layout centre as the origin weren't you?" Hanako asked as she ran forwards, hopefully before Lead and Lilac had a chance to regroup.

"Yeah... Origin is around there." I replied, pointing at the assigned Origin in this map.

Smirking in response, Hanako took aim and fired another rocket between Lead and Lilly before they could band together as they leaped away from each other yet again, Hanako now too close to the both of them.

Before I could shout out a warning, Hanako twirled on the spot holding something in her hand, a signal for me to take cover as a loud bang and flash of light that even made it partially into my eyes as I hit the floor in the opposite direction of the flashbang.

Both Lead and Lilac screaming from temporary sensory overload, I took the opportunity Hanako gave me and rushed Lead Scimitar, striking through his open guard and shaving off quite a sizeable chunk off his health bar, his total bar dropping to roughly 70%.

Grinning in satisfaction as he yelled in pain, I didn't raise my guard quickly enough as his wild haymaker swing cut into my unguarded flank, my own health bar taking a similar albeit larger hit.

"Violet stop messing around and fight seriously!" Hanako yelled, attracting Lilac's attention, a torrent of petals flying in her direction.

Dammit I was... Who knew he'd get a lucky shot in?

With Lead following up on his haymaker I had no chance to retort as I dodged to the side from his heavy and unfocused swing, countering with a swift slash across his face, my blade ready to parry his counter.

As he blinked a few times, the effects of the flashbang finally wearing off, I took a deep gulp as he glared at me.

The real fight begins now...

My legs starting to shake out of fear, I took a basic ready stance, sword gripped tightly in both hands.

"Payback time bitch!" Lead roared, swinging his scimitar in a wide diagonal arc, the swing itself predictable enough to gauge where the blade would travel.

My own sword held at the ready, I swung back with a loud battle cry ready to counter when the sound of glass breaking echoed throughout the surroundings.

My sword... Shattered... Upon impact...

Stunned by the sudden loss of my weapon, I quickly rolled out of Lead's blade's path slightly too slowly as part of my leg sustained a bad cut.

"It's over!" Lead roared, ready to deal the final blow, a sword interrupting him as it shot down from the sky into the ground next to me.

Damn I'm lucky... If Hanako hadn't told me to alternate the coordinate system, I'll be diced while trying to calculate the coordinates needed to summon a sword to myself.

Raising my recently acquired weapon to defend myself against Lead's vertical cleave, a bell sound rang as the words "Time Out" appeared across our fields of vision, half an hour having passed and Lead's team having the lower amount of health, (Lilac's health bar being in a critical state while mine was still at a healthy 40%).

"We won! We won!" Hanako yelled gleefully, dropping her rocket launcher and embracing me in celebration as Lead and Lilac burst out blaming each other for the loss.

"Yeah, that was so scary." I replied, feeling slightly shaken by my first tag battle.

"Don't worry, you'll get used to it." Hanako replied as we both burst out.

After quite a few battles, mental fatigue started to set in as we entered duel after duel, even being challenged a couple of times the final score being a grand total of 5 wins and 3 losses, the losses occurring from me dying twice and running out of time while both of us had less health than our opponents.

"Right I think it's time to call it a day." Hanako said, removing the direct link cable and logging off the global network as I did the same, "Too many consecutive matches in a day can tire you out. Especially if you're new to this lifestyle."

"Yeah..." I replied, too tired to give a full reply.

As we packed our bags to leave, I was about to stand up when the world turned blue and started to reform.

"Acceleration...?! Who's challenging me?!" I muttered, turning my head towards Hanako who vanished as well.

If it's not her then who?

As the circles of light appeared and expanded changing my appearance into that of my duel avatar's, I glanced around the library, the walls and buildings crumbling to dust as grass grew.

The twilight stage huh...?

The scenery that of a beautiful twilight sunset, the land itself was hilly with a lake near me to my left, the water reflecting the golden rays of the setting sun.

A clanking sound drawing my attention back to my opponent, I quickly accessed his stat details, his hand touching the air, no doubt doing the same thing.

Level 5 Shadow Vain? What kind of name is that...?

But the level alone was enough to cause alarm bells to go off in my head, this guy is a Level 5, someone who no doubt already has a good idea of what he's doing and how to fight. Why is he picking a fight with me?

"Ahhh, it's been a while since I've been to the twilight stage... Would be such a shame really, to dirty it with the blood of a newbie like you... Such a shame..."

"Who are you? And why are you challenging me?" I asked, ready to deploy my enhanced armament when needed.

"As you probably saw from my stats page, I'm Shadow Vain. And that's all you need to know. Nothing personal really, I just pick fights with lower levels so I can clock easy points and wins on my record."

"But I'm a Level 1. Killing me wouldn't bring you that many points..."

"But my win is practically guaranteed." Shadow said, cutting me off in mid-sentence.

I really don't like this guy...

"But enough talk. I thought you'd be in those tag duels for forever. Thank goodness I waited." Shadow said, drawing two longswords out from his back and dashing forward.

"Go Enhanced Armament!" I yelled, throwing my satellite into the air before drawing a sword from my own scabbard.

My blade clashing with both of his, I took a step back from the ferocity of the attack, and although the blades were just bits of data from a VR game, the impact felt so real.

Breaking the parry with a forward shove, Shadow sent me stumbling backwards as he himself leapt forward to press his advantage.

Left with no option but to defend, I shot a sword out into the ground next to me and picked it up with my free right hand, my left hand raised and ready to counter his incoming attack. As my left met his right, a large metallic clang echoed through the silent battlefield, my right blade making contact with his left as sparks flew between us.

Both of us pushing off and breaking the parry again, Shadow made a rapid series of steps towards me followed by a quick strike to my unguarded flank. Twisting my left hand to block, I could only gape in shock as my sword shattered upon contact with his, Shadow following through with his strike and taking off a large 40% chunk of my health bar from his attack.

Gritting my teeth from the pain, I hopped backwards to put some distance between us, a dirty red avatar silently watching us from the side: Rust Bomber.

Dammit I can't give up here... My body is moved by my thoughts, my will is dependent on my desire to win. If my desire is strong enough I will impose my will and find a way!

Dropping down another sword for my left hand, I swung it out to counter a slash from Shadow's own left hand, the blades clanging upon contact, my own blade shattering again like glass.

"Ha! Your swords are no match for mine, but why do you have so many of them? Are they somehow related to your trauma?" Shadow sneered, parrying my attack as we both fought for supremacy.

"What's it to you?!" I snarled, the memory I tried so long to bur resurfacing in my mind like a monster awoken from slumber.

"Oh my so you ARE one of those kids then? That'll just make killing you even sweeter." Shadow said, his voice coated with ill-suppressed mirth.

"One of those...?"

"Let me guess. Your family was robbed making you bankrupt causing your family to lose everything and now you're left with nothing. You're one of those cases aren't you?"

How would he know this?!

"My family was KILLED YOU SON OF A BITCH!" I roared, summoning down two swords on my position before leaping back and detonating them.

"Killed...? Oh, so you're one of the ones who resisted huh? That's too bad. Shame your parents had to go."

This guy... Talking like he was involved in their death... But it can't be, if he can't be that old, the oldest he could be would be 2-3 years if he fulfilled the condition of requiring a neuro linker for life... Maybe he's just messing with me.

My inner calm restored, I silently called down another sword to replace the one that shattered, raising both crossed against each other to block Shadow's vertical strike.

"Let me guess, armed group of four, all armed with pistols and silencers, they tried to steal the wares and your parents tried to stop them, they put up a fight and were killed as a result?"

My memory flashing in my mind in flashes and glimpses, my mother telling me to hush before hiding me under the bed, screams, metallic clicks...

The walls I had been building around my fragile heart finally shattering, I raised my head once again to glare at my opponent and the asshole who thinks it's fun to taunt people with the horrors of their past.

I don't care if he really is involved or not. To mess with my memories and my past. I'm going to KILL him.

Fists clenched to the point of the hilt of my sword pressing into my hand, I dashed forward, screaming a loud battle cry as I attacked him with no care for myself.

"YOU BASTARD...!" I roared, slamming my arms down as hard and as fast as I could, no care for defence with hurting him being the only thing on my mind.

Before I even reached him though, a black blur slashed through me, my vision instantly going black as I returned back to the real world.

Standing up as if nothing had happened, I gave a quick quizzical glance to Hanako silently asking what happened. As she drew a hand across her neck, the message was clear: I was beheaded.

With nothing left to do in the library, Hanako and I started to leave until something caught my eye: a lone figure, with chestnut brown hair and dark circles under his eyes, dressed in the school uniform of a school not around here waving at us as we left. Blinking once to make sure, there was no doubt about it, she was waving at us.

"Who was that guy? I could've sworn he was waving at us." Hanako whispered, right after we left the library.

"I don't know... But I think he's definitely related to the avatar I just fought just now." I whispered back.

"The level 5 Shadow Vain? This is bad... There's a reason you're not supposed to know other people in real life..."

"Really? Why?"

"He might come after you in real life instead of just the game. And by the way, what did he say to you? Why'd you lose control like that?"

"He mentioned... My parents." I said sullenly, nearly losing my balance as we turned around a corner.

"Careful... What about them?"

"I don't want to talk about it... So... What are we going to do now?"

"What I was planning to do all along. Join a Legion."

-End of Chapter 3-


End file.
